At first glance, it's easier to pin the Badgers' 37-20 loss to Illinois on the defense. After all, junior quarterback Jon Beutjer, not exactly lighting up NFL radars, torched UW's secondary to the tune of 319 yards and four touchdowns. Senior running back Antoineo Harris, one of the least impressive backs in the Big Ten, added to the Wisconsin malaise, running for 158 yards without a run longer than 11 yards to pad his stats. Overall, Illinois amassed 503 total yards on the Badgers.
Despite the gaudy numbers posted on them, the defense did not lose the game. UW lost because its offense did not fully capitalize on its defense's opportunism, and could not produce anything on its own beyond a few sub-40-yard punts.
Wisconsin's defense intercepted Beutjer three times and forced two fumbles, setting the table for UW's offense. The Badgers' only two touchdowns came off of turnovers with drives covering a combined 16 yards. The first score followed a second quarter 52-yard fumble return by junior linebacker Alex Lewis. The second touchdown came after a 55-yard interception return by sophomore strong safety Jim Leonhard.
While making good on those two accounts, the Badgers failed on three other opportunities, kicking a field goal after Leonhard's first interception and producing zero points off of two other Illinois turnovers, including Harris' gift-wrapped fumble at Illinois' 26 to start the second half.
\Our defense gave us some chances with turnovers to stay in the game, and in many cases we didn't take advantage of them like we could have,"" Head Coach Barry Alvarez said following the game.
The Badgers' failure to take advantage was certainly not due to the play of freshman running back Dwayne Smith. In his first start, Smith gained 122 yards, including 106 by halftime. On UW's third drive of the game, Smith seemed ready to take over, single-handedly driving the Badgers down to Illinois' seven-yard-line. Carrying the ball five times in a row at one point, the freshman standout punished the Fighting Illini with 58 yards on the possession.
However, with a first and goal at the seven, UW seemed to think that Illinois would politely step aside and let them in, and after two uninspired running plays, the pocket collapsed on third down and junior quarterback Jim Sorgi threw threw the ball away. Wisconsin settled for a field goal.
The 12-play, 77-yard possession marked the last success Wisconsin would have moving the ball. As the game went on, Wisconsin would start with the ball seven other times in its own territory, but only move the ball past its 50-yard line once, in garbage time.
""Bottom line is, we weren't sharp [offensively],"" offensive coordinator Brian White said. ""We need to do more to win a football game, and we didn't.""
In his first start of the season, Sorgi noticeably struggled, completing only 13 of 24 passes and throwing for no touchdowns. Sorgi and freshman wide receiver Brandon Williams connected on several occasions, but the Michigan native was unable to stretch the Illini defense, narrowly missing freshman receiver Jonathon Orr on the game's first play and sophomore receiver Darrin Charles down the sideline right before halftime. Besides these two attempts, Sorgi rarely looked for the long ball, one of his strengths, and looked cautious for much of the game.
""I would have liked to see me make a couple of more plays and put us in a position to score,"" Sorgi said. ""Overall, I'm not really happy with the way I played, but I'm not real disappointed.""
While the offense's ineptitude in moving the ball is worrisome, the squandering of opportunities handed to them loomed largest in the outcome of the game.
""When you get five turnovers and win that phase of the game so convincingly, you need to capitalize on it and score touchdowns,"" White said. ""Certainly, the beginning of the second half, getting that turnover and not being able to change the momentum of the game was really disappointing. We had a couple of opportunities we let slip by.""
With a repeat performance against Michigan, any chance of a bowl game will likely slip away.
